[jeff5614]

Hagens website recommended replacement after 6-8 months. Of course that might have been to encourage the sale of more bulbs, who knows.

 

[jeff5614]

I have Hagen T5HO bulbs that are around 8 months old so I've ordered some Giesemann Middays to replace them. Of course this isn't an apples to apples comparison as to whether there's any visible difference in intensity of new bulbs vs old. On a side note, I also have an Aquaflora on the way since my curiosity about those got the best of me.

 

[jeff5614]

The Giesemann's arrived today. I bought two Middays and one Aquaflora. I ordered them from Aquarium Specialty in Columbia SC. Pricing was $19.00 for the Middays and $20.50 for the Aquaflora 48 inch bulbs. Customer service was great. I placed the order on Sunday and received an email on Tuesday that the Aquaflora bulbs were on order and should arrive on Wednesday and my order would be shipped after that. It shipped on Thursday and arrived today.

On to the bulbs. I've been running one Hagen LifeGlo with a PowerGlo for 10 hours a day and a two hour noon burst with two LifeGlo's for a couple of hours. I tried both Middays together and a Midday/Aquaflora combo. The appearance of both Middays was a bit yellower than what I've been running but it was a natural warm appearance and the reds in my L cuba and P stellata were still prominent. The combo looked a bit less yellow and the reds may have been a little more pronounced but the appearance was close enough for me not to be a big deal either way.

One of the more noticeable things to me was the increase in pearling almost as soon as I flipped on the new bulbs. So I guess my old bulbs were ready to be replaced.

I do like them. They don't have that really green look that running two of the 6700k LifeGlo's has ( which is why I was using a PowerGlo/LifeGlo combo ). It's a warm natural look, as I said above, that I really like. They're a keeper and I'm looking forward to seeing what the plants think of them.